Corrections in Nomenclature: Orang Outang; Ca'ing Whale

Abstract

KINDLY allow me a line or two in NATURE to point out that Orang outang is not the correct designation for the large anthropoid of Borneo and Sumatra, although it has now obtained, perhaps, what may seem a prescriptive right in our language. Nevertheless, it is as well to be accurate as not. Orang utan (or outan, if preferred), the correct Malay name for this ape, signifies (as is well known) Orang, man, and utan, forest, i.e. the forest man, in contradistinction to the Orang dusun, or village (civilised) man. Orang utang (or outang) is nonsense. Utang means debt, something owing. The correction has been made often before, but the occurrence of the erroneous combination in the latest abstract of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society and in a recent zoological work induces me to venture, in the interest of accuracy and of those who understand the Malay language, again to direct attention to the proper spelling.